The Drinks You Should Really Opt For Over The 'Tired' Moscow Mule

We'll cop to it. On the BuzzFeed quiz that asks you to choose your wedding menu to determine our wedding season, we went with Moscow Mules. (Before you protest, like PopSugar, that Moscow Mules are exclusively drinks for "hipster holiday parties," yes, we know. So what?) Anyways, it turns out we're destined for summer weddings. Esquire calls the cocktail "high-spirited." We'd call it cliche. Doesn't everybody get married in the summer? Giada de Laurentiis uses homemade ginger simple syrup in hers to liven things up. At least Insider approves. But at some point, someone's got to call the game. Enough is enough.

Enter cocktail expert Eric Trueheart. He's the former producer of the cocktail-centric Army of Drunks podcast, and co-founder of Black Yeti Beverage, a cocktail company releasing a line of bourbon and cola RTDs later this year. Trueheart spoke exclusively with Mashed to tell us it's time to break up with the Moscow Mule. "Sadly, the Moscow Mule has become a tired go-to at most bars," Trueheart warned, "and many bartenders shortcut it by just spraying some ginger ale in with some vodka and squeezing a lime over it." Luckily for all of us (and our suddenly cocktail-free summer wedding menu), Trueheart had some counter-suggestions.

What should we order if not a Moscow mule on our next trip to your favorite, slightly grungy, just-woke-enough neighborhood bar? Eric Trueheart urges you to go "interesting" with your cocktail choices.

"If you're craving ginger, try the Diablo cocktail," Trueheart suggested to Mashed, "with a base of tequila and some creme de cassis." Forbes writer Elizabeth Karmel is on board. "The highball was so refreshing and delicious that I couldn't stop talking about it," she raved in an article. If a Diablo isn't for you, and ginger's still your thing, order a Dublin Mule, says Trueheart. This cocktail "swaps out the vodka for the more complex Irish Whiskey."

Perhaps the ingredient that had you hooked on the Moscow mule was its vodka content. If that's the case, and you "don't want to take the serious plunge into a martini," Trueheart thinks an "old-school Harvey Wallbanger" might be for you. This cocktail "adds some Galliano liqueur to the classic screwdriver mix." The Harvey Wallbanger was once so popular as to earn a seat as a write-in candidate in the 1972 presidential election, as per Wine Enthusiast. High time for a comeback, we say.

Finally, if none of Trueheart's other suggestions are up your alley, "try a Sea Breeze," he told Mashed. This drink "blends grapefruit and cranberry juices into a cocktail far more tropical than anything they have in Moscow." Perfect, in other words, for summer weddings.